Vormetric secures $15 million to expand data protection

Vormetric this morning announced $15 million in new funding, led by Split Rock Partners, with existing investors Quicksilver Ventures, JK&B Capital and Sigma Partners also participating. The funds will support product development and international sales.

Last week, Pindrop Security announced the close of an $11 million Series A investment round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Citi Ventures and also including Felicis Ventures and Redpoint.

That followed the first quarter of 2013 in which VCs poured more than $350 million into IT security deals, nearly double as compared to the same quarter of 2012, according to a report supplied to GigaOM by the National Venture Capital Association.

The average deal amount -- $16 million – was up 125 percent over the $7.1 million amount in the first quarter of 2012, GigaOM reports.

These cybersecurity investments are much different than VC bets placed in the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and the social media bubble in the 2000s.

Cybercrime is a complex, lucrative, global enterprise that shows no signs of plateauing. And the bad guys in many ways are more organized, collaborative and enterprising than the good guys -- companies and governments -- tend to be. For 10 years now, cybercriminals have proven that they are able to innovate in real time and stay several steps ahead.

Data thieves, scammers, spies and hacktivists are having a field day taking advantage of society's increasing reliance on cloud computing and mobile devices. In this environment, venture capitalists are eager to place bets on security companies in position to build distinctive businesses with a chance to grow profitably over the long haul.

Vormetric supplies what it calls "innovative data-centric security solutions." It helps companies and governments lock down cloud services and valuable databases, in particular helping to stop advanced persistent threats. APTS are those stealthy network breaches in which intruders sneak into a company's network, usually by infecting the computer of one employee, to exfiltrate intellectual property over months and even years.

"Vormetric is transforming the way enterprises and government organizations approach security," said Jim Simons, managing director at Split Rock Partners, who is joining Vormetric's board of directors. "Given how much we've read about APTs recently, it's clear that perimeter security is failing and that servers and privileged users are the big targets."

Kessler promises to address "high-growth use cases such as the Cloud and Big Data, helping our enterprise and government customers thwart the rising tide of APTs, enhancing our ability to continuously innovate, and further expanding our international footprint."